


Connected Feelings! Reani and the New Magical Girls.

by chillydown



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Fjord and Sprinkle show up, Gen, Magical Girls, Typical Genre Tropes, but not in a major capacity, cartoon violence, magical girl au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:42:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21584761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillydown/pseuds/chillydown
Summary: "Wowww, Nicodranas is amazing! There's the ocean, wonderful food, and...two new magical girls? But why do they do things so differently? Samliel never told me about anything like this! Meet Mighty Crimson and Mighty Cobalt as we team up to fight a familiar face on the next episode of 'Sparkle! Bright Angel.'"--No explicit spoilers as this is an AU fic, but there's no reference to anything that happens post Reani's episodes.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 4
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2019





	Connected Feelings! Reani and the New Magical Girls.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wildheartsneverdie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildheartsneverdie/gifts).



The mid-day sun blazed over the coastal city of Nicodranas. On the streets below, people went about their daily lives. People shopped, people visited friends, everybody went about their business either unaware or not caring of the potential dangers lurking in the midst.

And Reani, magical girl from the city of Uthodurn, was sharing a bear claw with Beau and Jester, the two magical girls of Nicodranas. Life was weird like that sometimes. They sat on top of the Lavish Chateau, a multi-story inn, restaurant, and place of pleasure (a phrase that Reani really didn’t know what it meant, but she had already decided she’d ask Jester about it later), talking and getting to know each other better.

Though really, Jester had been doing most of the talking. Reani didn’t mind! It was fun just to talk with another magical girl. She’d never admit it, but it was kind of lonely being the only magical girl in Uthodurn. Talking with others was...nice.

“Y’know we didn’t even know Uthodurn HAD a magical girl,” Jester explained. She kicked her legs back and forth as she sat on top of the building, looking down at the rest of the town. As she talked, she tore up the pastry, ostensibly tearing it up into equal pieces though Reani couldn’t help but notice that one piece was bigger than the rest. “Sprinkle’s not really big on the talking so he didn’t give us a heads up like ‘heeey, guess what, the town nearby’s got a magical girl as well.’ He just kind of squeaked.”

“All I’m saying is that it’s good that thing is magic,” Beau remarked, eyes scanning the town below, arms still crossed over her chest. “He’d probably be dead otherwise.”

“So you all get your missions from Sprinkle?” Reani asked. Wow, that really was interesting. But also kind of confusing? She didn’t know if weasels talked to begin with. And, though she was too kind to say it, Reani couldn’t help but notice that the poor weasel seemed a little...skinny. And traumatized.

Maybe she had it easy in Uthodurn. Was being a magical girl in Nicodranas that hard?

If it was, it didn’t seem to bother Jester. She continued talking as she offered Beau a portion of the bear claw, then Reani, then Sprinkle, keeping the largest portion for herself. “Yep! He starts glowing and chirping and then the three of us follow him to wherever he’s going. We don’t really know what we’re fighting until we’re actually _fighting_ it but he’s never lead us into anything we can’t handle!”

“Yeah, he’s weirdly intuitive for a weasel. Dunno what we’d do without him.” Beau paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Probably run around like a bunch of idiots.” She popped the piece of pastry in her mouth and started to eat.

“Then how do you know what to do?” Reani asked. “I mean, I’m here cause Samliel told me to go visit the next town over, the magical girls there might need some help—”

“Which we TOTALLY don’t need,” Jester interjected, mouth full of pastry and slightly sulky tone in her voice.

“I’m not saying you do! But he told me to go here, so I listened to him and now I’m here. Sprinkle doesn’t tell you anything?”

The weasel trilled a little at the mention of his name, giving Reani an expression which kind of looked vacant. That wasn’t a good thing to think about someone’s magical mentor, she KNEW that, but...well, it looked kind of dumb. And traumatized. Maybe whoever gave Beau and Jester their powers made a mistake with their mentor?

“Nah,” Beau said, with a shrug. “Really, we didn’t know magical girls could have useful mentors until we met you.”

Jester gasped, obviously offended, as she moved to cover her weasel’s ears. “Sprinkle is NOT useless! He is a very good weasel who’s survived a lot of things and is a very strong fighter.”

“He almost drowned that one time,” Beau idly responded. The smile on her face told Reani that this sort of back and forth must be normal between these two.

“But he didn’t because he’s super strong and super magical and the best magical mentor a team could ask for.”

The more she learned about these girls, the more impressed Reani grew. They did this on their own with a mentor that didn’t really offer much help? That...well, that wasn’t how magical girls should work, was it? Samliel always gave her help, telling her what to do and where to go next. He thanked her when she won and consoled her when she lost. Magical girls should always have a helpful advisor. Sprinkle wasn’t that. He was just a ragged glowing weasel dejectedly eating a pastry portion.

She had to ask Samliel about this later. But there was another thing weighing on Reani’s mind.

“Um, this might sound rude, but you said ‘the three of you’ earlier,” Reani hesitantly started. “There’s only two of you. Does that mean someone….” She trailed off, not really knowing what to day. Someone moved? Someone wasn’t a magical girl anymore? Someone (and she really hoped it wasn’t this one) died?

A heavy silence settled between the three of them and Reani instantly knew she made a mistake. Well how would she have known not to talk about this, huh? It wasn’t her fault. After what seemed like an eternity, Jester cautiously started to talk.

“There _were_ three of us. Beau’s Mighty Cobalt, I’m Mighty Crimson, and our friend Yasha was Mighty Citrine. We all awakened at the same time and she—”

“We don’t need to talk about Yasha,” Beau interjected. There was a harshness in her tone, like this conversation was picking at old wound she didn’t want reopened. Whoever this Yasha person was, it didn’t take a detective to tell that she meant a lot to Beau.

“Well, I mean, saying you don’t need to talk about someone kind of means you need to talk about them,” Reani interjected, frown on her face. “Was she a friend? Is she—”

Reani’s words died in her throat as Sprinkle the weasel let out an unholy sounding chirp. The weasel started to glow a bright pink as it levitated off of the ground, looking in the direction of the coast. A plume of smoke rose in the distance as Beau let out a sigh of utter annoyance.

“Urrrrrgh. If it’s the coast, then it’s probably that bitch Avantika again,” she grumbled, getting to her feet.

“I hope so,” Jester grumbled. “We should go ahead and transform so I can punch her in the face.”

Now that caught Reani off guard. “Wait. Samliel told me that magical girls should transform closest to the scene of an attack as possible so that other people don’t see their form.”

Both Jester and Beau gave her an expression of sheer disbelief. Not for the first time today, Reani felt like a bit of an idiot. “You can fly, right?” Beau asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“And flying’s faster than walking.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So it makes sense to transform first then fly over to the danger!” Jester piped in, smile on her face. While Beau had a way of sounding accusative, when Jester said it, it sounded like a simple fact. Oddly enough, that made Reani feel like more of an idiot than Beau’s disbelieving tone.

“Look, you can walk if you want,” Beau continued. “But the two of us’ll fly over there.”

As Beau stuck out her hand, Jester grabbed it. The two thrust their free hands in the air as they cried out, “Dual Beacon Wave!” In a rainbow colored flash of light, their clothes started to fade away. Beau’s outfit was replaced by a blue skirt and crop top. Jester’s outfit faded into a red one with bell sleeves and a large, frilly skirt. Both of them had heavy boots, armbands that went from the elbows to the wrist, and _very_ noticeable muscles, as aspect which made Reani blush.

“Well?” Jester asked, once the transformation was done. She looked towards Reani, with an expectant smile that made Reani pause. If they wanted her to transform here, it must be for a reason, right? So she should listen to them, right? Samliel would understand...she hoped. Giving the two of them a nod, Reani grabbed her brooch.

“Light Crystal Power Make-Up!” Ribbons of light surrounded Reani’s body. Her outfit changed, as a tight bodysuit formed around her chest and a brown pleated skirt sprung out from around her waist. A halo briefly glowed around her head before settling around her forehead and turning into a tiara. As the transformation finished, Reani posed.

“Bringer of hope and emissary of justice, Angel Light! I’ll shine bright and—”

“Cool speech, do it later!” And without warning, Beau hooked her arms under Reani’s armpits, lifting the other magical girl up in the air as her and Jester started to fly towards the coast.

Reani allowed herself a brief moment of sulking: this was _not_ how things were done. And yet, it made sense in a weird way? She’d have to think about this later, not when she was being carried by Beau’s amazingly strong arms towards a beach that was obviously under attack.

The closer they got to the beach, the easier Reani could see what was happening. A large, ape-like monster thrashed on the beach, throwing rubble at civilians fleeing in terror. Floating in the sky was a man in sea-green armor. He had dark hair with a gray streak running through it. And he was watching the chaos with an approving look on his face.

“Well _hell_ ” Beau grumbled, almost under her breath. “It’s Fjord.”

Reani turned towards Jester, intent on asking just who this Fjord guy was, when the other girl’s expression gave her pause. It was only for a brief moment, soon replaced by a look of fierce determination, but Reani could have sworn the other magical girl was sad. Which didn’t make sense: this Fjord guy was the enemy. Why would Jester be sad about the enemy?

This was all really confusing.

“You go punch Fjord in his stupid face,” Jester said, through gritted teeth, as she started to peel off towards the left. “I’ll go punch his dumb monkey thing.”

“Uh, what should I—” But before Reani could finish, Jester was flying off towards the monster and Beau, still holding Reani, landed on the ground with a thud.

“Fjord!” Beau snarled. The man turned to look at her, giving her an expression of mild disinterest. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but leave this place alone.”

“You know what I’m here for,” Fjord said, as he leveled his hand towards Beau’s face. A stray thought crossed Reani’s mind: the bad guy sounded like a cowboy? No, wait, focus on the matter at hand. “I know y’all have one of the orbs to unleash Uk’otoa. Give it to me or my barlgura will destroy the entire town.”

“Like we’re going to let you unleash evil upon the world you _jerk._ ”

Reani was a bundle of confusion. Uk’otoa? Orbs? Barlgura? Samliel didn’t tell her anything about this! But what she knew was that the town was in danger and that large weird ape thing was in a fistfight with Jester. And as a magical girl, it was her duty to save people! So, ignoring her confusion, Reani struck another pose. “Bringer of hope and emissary of justice, Angel Light! I’ll shine—”

“Eldritch Blast!”

A green burst of light shot from Fjord’s hands, hitting Reani square in the chest and knocking Reani square on her rear. As she skidded in the sand, she could only think about how the bad guys back in Uthodurn knew how being a magical girl _worked_ , they knew to give her enough time to say her speech, the bad guys in Nicodranas were stupid and dumb and didn’t play fair.

But, as Samliel told her, a magical girl shouldn’t sulk. So, after a brief moment of indulging in some misery, Reani staggered up to her feet. She needed to protect this town and these people. She needed to protect Beau and Jester. They all were magical girls, they should be able to defeat this Fjord guy and that...weird ape monster thing (was that the barlgura? Reani wasn’t sure). She got to her feet, ready to team up and band together to save the day…

...only to notice Beau and Jester weren’t really doing that. Jester seemed focused on trying to punch the barlgura into submission. The ape monster was slow moving, but still trying to hit Jester in return. As for Beau, she was dodging blast after blast of sickly green energy shot from Fjord’s hands, as the other man tried to hit her.

One thing was obvious to Reani: the situation wasn’t going to go anywhere any time soon. And the fact that Beau and Jester weren’t working together and fighting the bad guys like magical girls should be doing kind of made her a little bit angry. Which was a weird feeling, but there it was. Nothing was like what Samliel said would happen and this final lack of teamwork was the tipping point. “This thing’s going to hurt people! We need to stop that monster right here, right now.”

“I’m working on it!” Jester screamed, as she dodged another piece of rubble thrown by the barlgura. Right after that, she flew back towards the barlgura, swinging a punch at the thing. Okay, no. That was it. As she saw Jester punch the thing, Reani felt her annoyance at the situation bubble over into downright rage. 

“You’re _magical_ girls!” Reani yelled, anger seeping into her voice. “And you’re a magical girl team! Actually use some magic and _work together!_ ”

It was as if the thought hadn’t occurred to either of them until just now. Both Beau and Jester gave Reani a momentary look of pure surprise, distracting them from the conflict at hand. The barlgura moved to pick up a large rock as that sickly green energy started to gather around Fjord’s hand. Quickly, Reani made her move, praying desperately that she chose the right target.

“Light Halo Frisbee!” The tiara around her head vanished as a glowing white halo appeared over her hand. Gesturing towards Fjord, she tossed the halo as if it was a boomerang. The halo shot towards the man, expanding around him before contracting, pinning Fjord’s arms tight to his waist. The sickly green glow dissipated as the man struggled against his bonds.

Reani turned her attention towards Jester: the other girl was distracted, eyes focused on Fjord and not on the barlgura about to throw a rock at her head. Fortunately, Beau wasn’t distracted.

“Cobalt Stunning Strike!” A blast of lightning shot from Beau’s fists as she punched the air towards the barlgura. Crackling with electricity, the creature froze in place, rock held tight in it’s hands.

“That’s more like it!” Reani yelled out, focusing all her attention on the magic. She could feel Fjord strain against her bonds, but she knew now was the time. Beau and Jester had to do this themselves. Because...well, that’s just how it was done, wasn’t it? “Finish that thing off!”

Running towards Jester, Beau reached out her hand. With a little nod, Jester grabbed Beau’s hand, clasping it with a tight squeeze as both girls pointed their hands at the barlgura. At the same time, they both cried out, “Mighty Marbled Beam!”

A bright jet of red and blue light shot from their hands. The light twisted upon itself, colors twisting around each other as the beam slammed into the chest of the barlgura, enveloping it in bright light. With a horrible shriek, the monster vanished, turning into sparkles aimlessly drifting towards the sky.

“You did it!” Reani called out, not bothering to hide the excitement in her voice. But as she turned to look at Jester and Beau, she knew she shouldn’t have let down her guard. The magic around Fjord started to fade as the man floated out of her halo’s grasp.

“I’ll be back next time,” he said, with a snarl. At the sound of his voice, both Reani and Jester turned to take a look at Fjord.

“No, wait!” Jester called out, running towards the man. But it was too late. In a flash of sickly green energy, Fjord vanished, disappearing off to who knows where.

That was okay, Reani reminded herself. They defeated the monster! They saved the day! They could deal with stupid ol’Fjord later. She turned towards Beau and Jester, pep in her step and excitement in her smile, hoping that the shred of joy she felt at winning this encounter managed to carry on towards the other two.

“We saved the day! We’re heroes! This is a good thing, right?” But as she gave them a winning smile and tried desperately to radiate some cheerfulness, Beau’s angry scowl and Jester’s badly hidden downtrodden expression told Reani that this wasn’t as good a thing as she had hoped.

\---

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Though Jester tried to seem bright and upbeat, Reani could tell she didn’t want to talk. Reani often filled the silence herself, chattering about random things and keeping the other two smiling until she heard Samliel’s voice in her head and knew the inevitable had arrived: she needed to go back. Jester left the group for a moment, claiming that she needed to pick something up. And so, Beau and Reani were left standing in awkward silence. Reani opened her mouth, as if to say something, but Beau quickly cut her off.

“Fjord’s a friend of Jester’s. And mine, I guess, but mostly hers. He...wasn’t that bad a guy for a while. We think Uk’otoa’s gotten a hold of his mind somehow. Jester’s trying to find a way to free him.”

Though she knew the words sounded stupid, Reani said them anyway. “But...Samliel said that all enemies must be destroyed. And Fjord’s the enemy.”

“Not to Jester,” Beau said, with a shrug. There was a brief pause before she started talking again. The words were pained, as if speaking them taxed Beau’s mind more than any combat did. “Yasha’s the enemy also. She was part of our team but something got ahold of her mind. She attacked us and left. We haven’t seen her since.”

The silence resumed as Reani tried her hardest not to stare at Beau. If Yasha attacked them, then Yasha was the enemy. But magical girls weren’t supposed to fight other magical girls. And Yasha...from the way Beau talked about her, Yasha obviously meant a lot to Beau. And Beau meant a lot to Reani—just spending one day with Beau and Jester told her that much. So Reani shouldn’t attack Yasha. But Yasha was the enemy and the enemy had to be destroyed.

In just one day, Reani’s carefully constructed worldview had started to chip away, piece by piece. She wasn’t sure if she liked that.

“Whatever,” Beau said, filling a quiet that Reani had forgotten existed. “It’s dumb, okay? I know she’s the enemy and I know I should kill her but I kind of hope Jester’s right. I hope there’s a way we can save her.”

“I hope there’s a way you can save her too,” Reani said, words spilling out of her mouth before she realized what was happening. “Especially if it’ll make you happy.”

And that awkward silence started again. Wow. She did _not_ mean to say that. She knew that a bright red blush was starting to creep up her face as she stammered and talked and tried desperately to fill the silence. “Uh, Beau? You and Jester are really nice and I hope that Samliel lets me visit you two again. Um, especially you, though.”

Beau blinked back surprise before giving Reani a reassuring look. Oh man, did Beau think she was stupid? Beau totally thought she was stupid, why did she say something like that? “You know, you can always play hooky for a day and come visit us.”

“But Samliel says that a magical girl needs to always be ready to face the assault of—”

“Wait, he expects you to be ready all the time?” Beau frowned, wrinkling her forehead with worry. “That’s messed up. Look…” It took a while for the words to come out, like Beau had to force them from somewhere tight and rarely used. “You helped Jester and me out during that fight. Now I’m gonna help you. You can’t be focused on your duty all of time. Have an off day, just go blow off some steam and do something fun once in a while. The world’s not gonna end if you take some time to yourself.”

“But if I’m not there, then what about—”

“Look, there’s a lot of us. There’s more than just me, you, and Jester. There’s at least six or seven of us. If something happens on your day off, someone else can take care of it.”

Those words gave Reani pause. Someone else? But Samliel had told her that it was just her. That only she could be relied upon to protect Uthodurn. The thought had crossed her mind, that if Beau and Jester were magical girls then there might be others as well. But she refused to think too much about it. Because if that were the case...then that meant Samliel had to have lied to her. But he wouldn’t do that. Right?

“I didn’t know there were that many,” Reani responded, words barely audible.

A look crossed Beauregard’s face. Reani didn’t know exactly what that look meant, but there was something close to pity in Beau’s eyes. Pity and disbelief that this person could know so much about the world of magical girls and yet so little. Reani hated that look. It made her feel weak and silly and stupid all at the same time. Beau opened her mouth as if to say something, but before she could, a loud voice called out from the distance.

“Heeeeeey, you guys!” It was Jester, running towards them with a box in both hands, piece of paper taped to the top. “So I know you said you didn’t know many other magical girls and I thought that was _really bad_ sooo I wrote down the names and numbers of everybody I know! That way you can call them up and talk to them and maybe do another team up and everybody can—”

“You know you usually _ask_ someone before you reveal their secret identity,” Beau cut in, pity replaced with exasperation and a blush that started to creep across her face.

“They won’t mind!” Jester said, smiling in response. It was obvious from Jester’s tone of voice that even if they did mind, she didn’t care what they thought. Wordlessly, Reani took the paper and started to read the names off the top. Cutie Dragon. Iron Strength and Lightning Flash: a note from Jester told Reani that those two both worked in Shady Creek Run. Mighty Celadon and…

“Mighty Crow?” Reani asked, confused.

“Oh, that’s Kiri! She’s a _big_ sweety, she works out of Hupperdook?” From the way Jester was talking, it was obvious that she could talk about Kiri for hours on end. “She’s a super new magical girl so Nott, ah I mean Mighty Celadon, was going over there to make sure everything’s okay.”

“Yeah, are you sure she should have been the one to go over there?” Beau asked, wry amusement in her voice. “Celadon’ll get Crow drunk if we’re not careful.”

“It’s fiiiine,” Jester said, with a tone of voice that outright stated she hadn’t thought much about the possibility of accidental alcoholism. “Nott knows that Kiri’s a baby, she’s smart enough to not let her get drunk.”

This influx of information practically paralyzed Reani. Magical girls that were newer than her? One magical girl who got _drunk?_ That was not how it was supposed to be done, Samliel had told her that! But Jester trusted these other girls so they couldn’t be bad. Right? This new information started to swarm around her head with all the other new information Reani had obtained today. Needless to say, she had a lot to think about when she returned home and a lot she didn’t want to think about at the moment. So, she changed the subject.

“Um, and the box is for…?”

“Oh!” Jester perked up, as if remembering the existence of the box for the first time. “It’s for you! I don’t know how long the journey back to Uthodern is and you might get suuuper hungry, so I bought a bunch of cupcakes for you!”

“Are any vanilla?” Reani hopefully asked.

“Well, uh, no. But there’s black moss! It’s super good, you’d think it tastes like a plant but it’s got this nice earthy texture that works really well with the sweetness.” As Jester practically pushed the box into Reani’s hands, she took it with a grin.

“Thanks! I’ll tell you what I think about all of them, don’t worry!” To which Jester responded with a thumbs up. An awkward silence started to settle over the group, neither of them wanting to say goodbye first. Eventually, Beau broke the silence, first with an awkward cough, then with a few words.

“Well...you’ve got to get going, right? Don’t be a stranger.” She turned to look at Reani...and actually _look_ at Reani this time, eyes matching as Beau let a hint of seriousness enter her voice. “And seriously, stop by to visit sometime.”

Jester, oblivious to that seriousness, gave Reani a large smile of her own. “Not if we visit you first! I’ve never been to Uthodurn before, it seems _super cool_. I’ll send you postcards and messages and all sorts of things so it’ll kind of be like you never left!”

“Yeah,” Reani responded, with a smile. “Like I never left.” She squeezed the box of cupcakes to her chest slightly, more as a protective gesture than anything else. “I’ll definitely see you guys soon.”

And so, plans and ideas already forming in her mind, Reani gave Beau and Jester a wide smile then turned to leave. One thing was certain: she wasn’t going to forget those two girls and all the things they taught her.

**Author's Note:**

> Fortunately, this is a magical girl series aimed at children and Yasha gets redeemed in a climactic, mid-season battle, probably when Beau and Jester's weapons and transformation devices change form so more toys can be sold + more merch can be made featuring all of the team members. Fjord also gets redeemed, but bad guys get redeemed at the end of the season.
> 
> As someone who absolutely adores the magical girl genre, getting this request was like getting the best surprise present ever. Enjoy!


End file.
